


What Can I Do (But Love You)?

by aurora_chiroptera



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 14:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15245163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurora_chiroptera/pseuds/aurora_chiroptera
Summary: Madi takes a moment of peace at home. Takes place near the beginnings of her and Silver's relationship, in between seasons three and four.





	What Can I Do (But Love You)?

The ocean lapped at her toes. It was dangerous to be along the coast, because someone might spot her. But for Madi, walking among the waves, she could imagine that the world was spread out before her. Hers to explore without danger, without fear, with total freedom. When she was a girl, she learned to sneak around the traps lain for those unfortunate enough to threaten her home. Along the beach, she would collect the spoils that the sea pushed up for her, some made by man and some only nature could craft.

Now Madi was grown, and she had men that would follow her every word. They trusted her, a weight that she bore in hopes of freedom for them all. It lingered on her mind even in moments like this, when she was on her own.

“There you all.” The voice carries from the grass along the shore. Madi doesn’t need to turn to know it’s John, and soon enough, he comes to her side.

“Am I needed?” Madi asks, worried what could have come up in the hour she has been absent.

“Only by me,” John grins at her, blue eyes bright in the sun as he leans forward on his crutch. He is beautiful, strong, and she doesn’t hide admiring this. “At least in this moment. You will be needed by your people soon enough, but for now, it’s only me asking for your time.”

“Oh,” Madi smiles back, but she can’t help but tease him. Whatever they are discovering between them is new, and it is young, fun and playful. “And what needs am I to meet?”

John blushes a bit, which she savors. Long John Silver brought to blushing like a fair maiden before her. He does give back, “Whatever you wish to discover.”

Madi begins walking again, and John falls in step beside her. She reaches over and takes his free hand, callused fingers against callused fingers. “How about some stimulating conversation?”

John chuckles, bringing her hand up to brush his lips against her knuckles. “As long as it’s not about this war, I am all ears.”

“Well I wanted to talk to you about the ‘Long’ in your name…” she says, as innocent as can be.

This makes him laugh again. “You will need to woo me a little more before I tell you that.”

“Hmm,” Madi says. “Or I could just suggest we go swimming.”

“In this chilly water?” John shakes his head when she smirks at him. “Now that hardly seems fair.”

“The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war,” she quotes as she turns to walk backwards in front of him.

Shaking his head, John tugs her hand and she stops. “May I kiss you now?”

“Yes,” Madi steps back toward him, hands resting on his hips through his coat. Leaning forward, they meet easily, neither of them taking charge. He is gentle with her, not because he worries he will hurt her but because it is what he needs. It is what he has decided she deserves. And maybe that is what they both need, something soft and full of understanding. 

She pulls back enough to look at his face again, his eyes searching her own. She presses a kiss to his forehead. “You are a good man, John Silver.”

“No,” John says, shaking his head. “But I will become a better one for you.”

“And I will become a little more black hearted for you,” Madi says, and these words exchanged are a promise. She wonders in this time, this place, this world, if they will be able to keep them.

But by God, she knows they will try.


End file.
